Pete Zaluzec, is a wildlife photographer who prints his photographs on the unique medium known as Japanese Gampi paper.

Upon looking at Pete Zaluzec’s work, the viewer often wonders what exactly they’re looking at. The crumpled, tissue-like paper nailed to the frame almost looks like an animal hide. The threedimensional effect that each image holds is attributed to his photographs being printed on two to three sheets of the ultra-thin Gampi paper and layered together, giving each one a lifelike result.

Pete Zaluzec’s deep connection to nature was expressed at an early age by doodling animals his parents took to see at Field Museum and Lincoln Park Zoo. His professional training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago expanded his mediums, including oil and sculpture and later as a custom architectural carpenter.

About 25 years ago, Pete Zaluzec began carving lifelike birds, which earned permanent places in prestigious collections and institutions including Maryland’s Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art. In the early 90s, his work turned to less detailed but more expressive birds, sculpted in bronze which joined the aforementioned collection, as well as the Bennington Center in Vermont and Wisconsin’s Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum.